Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

Evaluation and IEP Traps

From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

If your child is eligible for special education and you’re involved in developing his IEP, you may want to think about and respond to these statements. Next week we’ll post our responses.  Read more...

1. Agree or Disagree: For an evaluation to help a child, it should focus on testing the child with widely used standardized tests that compare him to other children of his age or grade.
2. Agree or Disagree: Schools should use a child’s test scores to determine the method(s) most likely to help her.

From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

By Teresa Foley, Ph.D.

Asnuntuck Community College, Enfield, Connecticut  Read more...

From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

A Guest Post by

Staci Greenwald, Esq.

Recently, I received this warning from Staci Greenwald, Esq., an outstanding special education attorney who has a child with special needs. Although the warning focuses on Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) in New Jersey, it contains a critical message for parents throughout the country: know the rules and regulations that govern special education in your state or territory, put your concerns and requests in writing, and act quickly. Here’s the warning:  Read more...

A Guest Post by

Katie Stover, Doctoral Candidate

Karen Wood, Professor

University of North Carolina Charlotte

Academic difficulties are only one of the many challenges that struggling readers face daily. According to Dunston and Gambrell (2009), “In addition to changes in reading motivation … some students begin to lose self-confidence, become anxious about school and engage in activities that inhibit rather than facilitate literacy learning.”  In other words, lack of success in reading can create emotional social and emotional problems.  Read more...

Here are 15 guidelines that can strengthen the effectiveness of your advocacy.

1. Have your child evaluated by experts who can identify your child’s needs.

2. Make sure you understand his needs before you meet with school personnel to discuss his needs and possible interventions.

3. Make specific requests (in writing) for meeting his needs; support your requests with reports from well-credentialed experts, experts whom the school respects.

4. Treat people with respect, even if you disagree with them, even if they reject your requests.  Read more...

Can music therapy help? Maybe.

Emotions affect learning. And many children with reading disabilities have extremely negative emotions about reading.  Maybe your child is depressed about his struggles. Maybe he keeps telling himself:

• I can’t read. I’m stupid.
• I’ll always fail.
• I’ll never read. No sense trying.

The longer such self-destructive thoughts and emotions plague children with reading disabilities, the longer their mental health, motivation to read, and their achievement will suffer. To reverse this, it’s critical to help them replace their negative, pessimistic emotions with positive, optimistic ones, ones that make them want to read, want to make the effort, want to enjoy a good book. For some children with reading disabilities, music may be key.  Read more...

As Wendell Berry said, “Once precision is abandoned as a linguistic or literary virtue, vague generalization is one of the two remaining possibilities, gibberish being the second.” Such language is open to guessing, misunderstanding, and misinterpretation. Look at these examples from a composite of IEPs.

Present Levels. “Juan has trouble with reading. He needs to improve his comprehension.” Ask yourself:  How far below grade level is he reading? In addition to comprehension problems, does he have trouble with sight vocabulary, decoding, and fluency? Does he have trouble with listening vocabulary and listening comprehension? Without this information, teachers (and parents) don’t know what to teach him, how to measure his progress, and, because his instructional levels are not listed, at what levels to start instruction.
 Read more...

From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

If your child is eligible for special education, perhaps. One key to getting help is to show the school that his social and emotional problems are impeding his learning or that of his peers. Another is to show that they’re blocking him from achieving a primary goal of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA): “To ensure that all children with disabilities have [an] education that [meets] … their unique needs and prepare[s] them for further education, employment, and independent living” (34 CFR § 300.1). A third is to show that involvement in a social and emotional learning (SEL) program is critical for him to achieve his academic goals.  Read more...

Perhaps.

If your child is eligible for special education, he may be entitled to virtually any nonmedical service he needs to benefit from special education. To get him services, you need to first learn what he needs and then request it. Here’s a reasonable strategy to increase the odds of getting him what he needs.  Read more...

• First, get written reports from well-credentialed, private specialists. Make sure you fully understand the reports and they tell the school what services your child needs, why he needs them, and why they’re essential for him to benefit from special education. Share these reports with your child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team.

Nothing can ensure that your child’s IEP meeting will be productive. However, you can increase the odds that it will be. Here’s one way. Before the meeting, meet with your child’s case manager and agree on how the meeting should be organized. You have a right to do this as you’re an important member of the IEP Team.

Fortunately, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA-2004) and the format of the IEP offer an excellent sequence for developing the IEP. Unfortunately, the sequence is often ignored and critical parts of the IEP are given the short shrift.  Read more...